Poll: Millionaire Tax Popular, Spending Cuts Too

Published February 23rd, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) - An Associated Press-GfK poll shows that President Barack Obama's proposal to make millionaires pay a significant share of their incomes in taxes is widely popular. But the plan is not shaking the public's embrace of spending cuts as the best way to balance the budget.

That fondness for limited government is significant in this election year because it shows voters prefer the Republican approach in the core partisan dispute over resolving the nation's fiscal problems.

The AP-GfK poll found that 65 percent favor requiring that people earning $1 million or more annually pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. Just 26 percent oppose.

Yet by 56 percent to 31 percent, people picked cutting government services over tax increases as the best way to reduce federal deficits.